Iraqi Forces, Gunships Kill 20 in Storming of Sunni Protest

Members of the Iraq’s Sunni community have been holding protests since December to demand that Shiite Muslim Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki share more power. Photographer: Junko Kimura/Bloomberg

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi army troops backed by
helicopters stormed a plaza in a northern town, killing at least
20 protesters and wounding 46 others, the latest outbreak of
violence in the oil-producing nation, the regional police force
said in a statement.

Three soldiers were killed and nine wounded by gunfire from
protesters in the Sunni Muslim town of Hawija, according to the
defense ministry website. The army arrested 75 people and
confiscated 40 rifles, five machine guns and 16 hand grenades.

Armed tribesmen, who lost family members when the army
stormed the square, attacked a number of army checkpoints in the
governorate, Hamed al-Juburi, a spokesman for the protesters,
said in a telephone interview from Hawija. The protesters have
since left the square, he said.

Skynews Arabia reported that Education Minister Muhammed
Tamim al-Juburi, a Sunni, resigned after the violence. There was
no immediate confirmation on the resignation from a government
spokesman and from members of his Iraqiya parliamentary
coalition.

Members of Iraq’s Sunni community have been holding
protests since December to demand that Shiite Muslim Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki share more power. Finance Minister
Rafih al-Issawi, one of the most senior Sunnis in the Shiite-led
government, stepped down March 1, heightening tensions almost a
decade after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein
from power.

Protest ‘Infiltrators’

The protesters included “infiltrators” from al-Qaeda, state-sponsored Iraqiya television said, citing a defense ministry
statement. At least 50 people were killed during the attack, Al
Jazeera reported today, citing a security official who wasn’t
identified.

Ground troop Commander Ali Ghaidan urged Hawija protesters
yesterday to turn over those involved in the killing of a
soldier and the wounding two others during an attack on an army
checkpoint in Hawija on April 19.

Violence has escalated since the U.S. withdrew its last
combat troops from Iraq at the end of 2011, with 4,568 civilians
killed in 2012 compared with 4,144 in the previous year,
according to the Iraq Body Count website. Forty-eight Syrian
soldiers and nine Iraqi troops were killed last month inside
Iraq, raising concern that the civil war in neighboring Syria
may spill over and destabilize parts of the country.

Followers of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr have also
criticized Maliki’s government, and authorities in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish north have been withholding oil from the
central government-controlled export pipeline since December
amid disputes over energy contracts and land.